Effective Chinese celebrates the evolution from a humble start in 2007, to the highly integrated learning system it is today. Our website now integrates quizzes, flashcards, audio recordings, textbook, and presentation slides, all available on desktop and mobile devices. For 10 years we have been re-envisioning language instruction as a fun and rewarding...

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Effective Chinese is a pioneer in Incremental Learning. Our program lets you develop skills on 4 axes: pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and conversation. New concepts are reinforced through a variety of activities, each stimulating different regions of the brain. We incrementally introduce the language, so progress is manageable and effective. Between...

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At Effective Chinese we have developed a new paradigm for learning languages.  Instead of teaching efficiently, we teach effectively.  We focus on outcomes so you can be successful. We start by choosing language content that is relevant and meaningful. Then we deliver it at an incremental pace that lets you absorb it. In the classroom you learn...

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This year Effective Chinese is hosting a Chinese paper cutting (jiānzhǐ 剪纸) activity at the Lan Su Garden in downtown Portland.  The Lan Su Garden, for those who are not familiar with Portland, is a genuine Chinese Garden occupying a full city block.  Built in the year 2000, the materials and craftsmen were sourced from Suzhou China, Portland’...

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Mandarin is a tonal language. The phonetic representation of the language, pinyin, indicates which tone to use … usually. Certain combinations of syllables cause the tones to change. A good example is 你好 means hello. In the dictionary it is written nǐhǎo (3rd-3rd), but it is spoken níhǎo (2nd-3rd).Most text books expect students to memorize the...

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